The Christmas Season

So yes, 23 hours and 7 mins of Christmas Day has passed and I finally have the chance to sit down and blog about the things that happened during the holiday season this year. The family did have a Christmas lunch (and dinner) today over at my paternal cousin's place, but I have no photographs to show simply because I was too preoccupied with playing Rock Band and Rummie. In fact, Jie and I got so caught up with Rock Band that we didn't even manage a full lunch. Hunger only started to set in after we reached home and hence we begin feasting - almost immediately - on the leftover turkey, siew yoke and popiah that we brought back from lunch (hence the earlier parenthesis).

However, I am blessed to have another Christmas lunch to attend this Saturday and I am rather certain that I will return back with a full stomach as well as a camera bursting of pictures. Simply because this lunch would be over at my maternal cousins' place, the group of relatives to which I am comparatively closer to.

Hence, apart from the above-mentioned lunch and Rock Band, the only other thing the family did today was to attend church. I had expressed my feelings for the music event in an earlier blogpost with a picture of Gazette's Uruha. Now that the music event is over, part of me is still sunken in such an emotion, namely because of 'key' troubles with a classic christmas carol. But, I shall have to chuck aside my humanly sentiments in favour of what He has to say.

On this note, Mum and me took a trip down to PS 2 days ago and were happy to see this as part of the decoration:

Almost like a 3 dimensional version of my Sunday School books. Lovely. I bet it struck a chord with my mum, the ever so hardworking Sunday School Coordinator.

Then we headed over to Spotlight, since Mum decided to (gasp!) sew the curtains for the new house by herself. Entering Spotlight was awesome. Encountering rows and rows of fabric like this

and this

put together in a technicolour tapestry! A feast for the eyes.

But of course we were looking for raw materials for curtains, and so sifted through stacks of this

and more of it!

And I simply had to laugh when I saw this

The use of a literary device - the fricative! Was this divine intervention, or what? Maybe God was hinting that school is starting soon and I'd better snap out of holiday mood. On hindsight, it appears that God was indeed making his presence known as well. Here is another testament to that:

How often is it that 3rd Commandment appears in print medium apart from the most famous book in the world? And here it is on a piece of fabric designed for clothes!

Well, we emerged from the divine Spotlight with good stacks of lace. Now the hardest part would be to get down to sewing the curtains. We barely completed the first step - unpicking the extra strip of fabric along the top - and boy it was so much harder than expected. But heck, there's so much more work that needs to be done for the new place I'd just grit my teeth and work with the needle and thread, and 2m long piece of lace.

Yesterday we encountered a rather disappointing incident regarding the new house. However, it did produce 2 rims of silver lining as well. Firstly, it served a bigger incentive to get the new house ready for habitation ASAP. Simply because that disappointing incident could have been avoided if the place was ready. Secondly, it let us to discover the way to cook corn in a toaster. Mum did it a la barbecue style, with silver foil and all. And it emerged excellent.

As sweet and juicy as it would have emerged from a steamer. I had 3 chunks to myself.

A delicious Christmas Eve dinner. Speaking of which, I still have not given up my dream to host a lavish Christmas banquet for family and friends, and I believe I would be able to host it over at the new house. Next year maybe.

And, before I hit the sack, Camello (the crayfish) started to freak me out again by attempting to crawl out of the red tub. The creepy sound produced when his feelers and claws scraped against the smooth plastic surface convinced me that he had to go for real. So, this is what happened of him:

Good riddance. May you enjoy your new home @ Pierce Reservoir. Bet your fellow shelled counterparts will declare you King of the Puddle, since you definitely outshine them in the size department.

Another unexpected show-up

There is the horribly cliched yet undoubtedly true saying: 'a picture paints a thousand words'. Following these words, this picture - or rather, the expression of the person in this picture:

Unfortunately, this person (and thus HIS picture), does not belong to me. Thank you Facebook.

Very aptly summarizes how I feel about the music-related event that I am going to be part of this Christmas.

Oh GOD, miracle needed. Please. The hearts are ready, give us the technicality.

That aside, Jar Jar Binks has been usurped from the post of 'latest shocking discovery in my block' by a crustacean.

Jie and I first saw this crayfish at the bottom of the stair landing and dismissed it as part of the junk that my neighbours tend to throw out of their houses once they get bored of them. Yes, I assumed it was a toy, especially since it laid motionless there even when we walked near to it. It was only on our way back to take the lift that I noticed some creature crawling on the pavement. I simply cannot ignore crawling creatures and this is not because I love them. I need to glance at them, at the very least in 2 second intervals, so that I know when to flee should they come too close for comfort or charge at me for the matter. So that was how I noticed the crayfish.

I contemplated selling it to the nearby tze char stall or something but Jie's animal-friendly tendencies got the better of her. As I'm blogging, the crayfish is lying in a tub of salted water with an empty dental floss box to play with and some strands of lettuce. Hooray for Dad - nothing ever scares him - who swiftly swiped the crayfish off the pavement and placed it in the tub. But Dad has also expressed plans to release that creature into the Bedok reservoir or return it to the white flower pot, outside a certain neighbour's house (no, its not the jar jar one), which contains water, dirt and (surprise, surprise) 3 other crayfish! Talk about irresponsible ownership. For the matter, Lilbro John has suggested naming it Camello.

And before I hit the sack:

It actually stopped to pose when I whipped out my camera. Thanks Kitty.